The Garden of Words
| The Garden of Words | |
Theatrical release poster
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言の葉の庭 (Kotonoha no Niwa) |
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| Genre | Drama, romance |
| Anime film | |
| Directed by | Makoto Shinkai |
| Produced by | Noritaka Kawaguchi |
| Written by | Makoto Shinkai |
| Music by | Daisuke Kashiwa |
| Studio | CoMix Wave Films |
| Licensed by | |
| Released |
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| Runtime | 46 minutes |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Makoto Shinkai |
| Illustrated by | Midori Motohashi |
| Published by | Kodansha |
| English publisher | |
| Demographic | Seinen |
| Magazine | Monthly Afternoon |
| Original run | June 2013 – December 2013 |
| Volumes | 1 |
| Serial novel | |
| Written by | Makoto Shinkai |
| Published by | Kadokawa Shoten |
| Demographic | Seinen |
| Magazine | Da Vinci |
| Original run | September 2013 – April 2014 |
| Volumes | 1 |
The Garden of Words (Japanese: 言の葉の庭 Hepburn: Kotonoha no Niwa?) is a 2013 Japanese anime drama film written, directed and edited by Makoto Shinkai, animated by CoMix Wave Films and distributed by Toho. It stars Miyu Irino and Kana Hanazawa, and featured music by Daisuke Kashiwa instead of Tenmon, who had composed the music for many of Shinkai's previous films. The theme song, "Rain", was originally written and performed by Senri Oe in 1988, but was remade for the film and was sung by Motohiro Hata. It was adapted to a manga with illustrations by Midori Motohashi and later novelized by Shinkai, both in the same year as the film.
The film focuses on Takao Akizuki, an aspiring 15-year-old shoemaker, and Yukari Yukino, a mysterious 27-year-old woman he keeps meeting at Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden on rainy mornings. While Takao is skipping his morning class to design shoes, Yukino is avoiding work due to personal problems in her professional life. Yukino tells Takao nothing about herself, including her name, while Takao opens up to her, sharing his passion for shoes by offering to make a pair for her. When Takao learns Yukino's identity, emotions come to a head as both learn that they have been teaching each other "how to walk". Shinkai wrote the story as a tale of "lonely sadness", based on the meaning of the traditional Japanese word for "love", and uses shoes as a metaphor for life. The story's motifs include rain, Man'yōshū poetry, and the Japanese garden. The age difference between the two main characters and their character traits demonstrate how awkwardly and disjointedly people mature, where even adults sometimes feel no more mature than teenagers, according to Shinkai.
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